Moving on
by JenMac001
Summary: Or the more things change the more they stay the same. Jubiilee fic. M day, OZT etc happened and Jubilee is powerless but she has a new employer and it is time to show that things are never as different as you think they are AU to let me change stuff
1. Chapter 1 Where we are now

**AU: **Time to stop skulking and post something here myself. Mostly just for fun

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

**Background**: Jubiilee fic AU. M day, OZT etc happened and Jubilee is powerless - but she has a new employer

Moving on

It had been 36 months, 3 years, 1068 days since it had happened. 3 years since her life had been changed beyond measure. In the blink of an eye everything she had ever believed to be constant had been ripped away and she had been left to rebuild her life, and her very being.

In her 24 years on this planet Jubilation Lee had faced more than her fare share of challenges, had been asked to face more ears than most folks would see in a life time, and she had, somewhat foolishly believed that there was nothing else that could harm her. Then that god forsaken woman had opened her mouth and inflicted her madness on them all. With only a handful of words and a careless thought the lives of thousands of mutants had been altered in a way that they had never thought would happen. Her powers, the things that made her what and who she was had been stripped from her. In the blink of an eye the very things that had defined her existence had been taken from her and only then did she truly understand what loss was.

A wry smile crossed Jubilees face as she peered into her rapidly cooling coffee cup. She had fooled herself that she had known what loss was, when her parents died she thought she understood, then following all Logan's absences she had known loss, when she was sent away to the academy with Emma, again following the FOH attack where Angelo was lost to her, after Bastion and OZT. The list could just go on and on but she could not allow herself to wallow in the pity that always hung around on the periphery. It was not productive, it gained her nothing. She had always used her powers as a means of escape from her nightmares. The scars that her traumas her left could be blanked out for short periods when she felt the elation of using her powers.

She flexed her hands around he mug remembering the feeling of the plasma bursts pouring from her hands and the smell of ozone as they burst. She had never really appreciated them when they were there, and now she would never be able to, thanks to that Maximoff woman.

Silently tears fell from her eyes which (much to her surprise) were still blue. She paid no head to the tears, she had grown so used to their presence that they no longer registered, Letting out a deep sigh she put down the mug and picked up her bag and keys, heading out of the apartment ready to face another day, as a human.


	2. Chapter 2 The gang's all here

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

Lights flashed in the ready room of the mansion, all of the alarms had been turned to silent to ensure that the remaining students were not frightened. Bishop scanned as many of the screens as he could looking at multiple news feeds as they came in.

There had been an attack, in Iowa it seemed and it appeared that Mutants were being blamed. There were now low level protests and attacks occurring throughout the state but it was starting to escalate and it was only a mater of time before there were deaths.

Cerebro had started to direct the news feeds through to the ready room screens where there was always a member of one of the team on security detail. Ever since Wanda Maximoff had created the havoc of M day there had been so many uprisings. They had, thus far been small in nature but it was, non the less a worrying trend. Bishop looked away from the screens and sent out the standard message to come for a staff meeting, through the com links all members of an active team would have on them.

The door to the ready room was flung open as Logan stomped in, stogie clamped between his teeth, coffee in hand. He growled at Bishop who just gestured over at the screens. Logan rested against the table watching the screens and raised on eyebrow at the large man who still sat silent in his chair. Bishop just looked shrugged, feeling no need to speak, the images said it all really. The rest of the team started to come in to the rooms in ones and twos, most with coffee. Gambit and Bobby appeared arguing about about some sports game they had been watching the night before, Sam Guthrie strode in with his sister and Worthington followed closely by Storm and Betsy Braddock.

"Good goddess Logan, put that fowl thing out" she admonished the stocky Canadian gesturing to the stogie.

"Ah hell 'Ro give a man a break, its too early for this"

"Logan either you put it out or I will" The warning was clear in Storms voice and a quick glance from Logan showed her eyes starting to mist over.

"I quite agree" a cold voice came from the back of he room. Logan glanced up to see Emma Frost and Scott Summers walk into the room, the last of the team were here. Logan let out a world weary sigh and removed is cigar from his mouth. Had it just been Frost then he would have made a game of it and kept on with his smoking but 'Ro looked pretty serious and no amount of amusement from annoying the famed White Queen would make being hit by lightening or drenched in rain worth it, though it was a close run thing. Besty passed over an ashtray as she moved to the spare seat on Logan's right allowing him to stub out the half smoked cigar.

Scott Summers walked over to Bishop and looked over at the information Cerebro was feeding through to the room. He had been somewhat delayed by Emma and a new outfit she had been showing him when the message came through that they all needed to assemble and it had taken him longer to get there than he usually liked. He liked to be the first man in the room but today he was the last. Glancing over at Bishop he asked "Is this everything?" The only response he received was a nod while the man from the future stared stoically ahead at the news feeds.

Scott straightened and walked to the front of the room as the other members of the team took their seats around the large oval table. Emma he noticed , had already made her way to the seat at the front of the room and looked down over the members of the team. He could not help but think that at moments like this Emma was so much the image of her namesake, a queen looking down over her court. He also saw that her choice of seat had not gone unnoticed by some of the other members of the team, especially Remy and Storm. He loved his wife dearly but there were days where he just wished that she would think about others before herself. Whether or not she meant it, she always seemed to manage to get someone's back up. He hoped that today there would be no arguments or sniping. Emma smiled over at him as he walked to the front of the room and he felt himself smile back. He had not thought that he would smile again after Jean, but Emma had helped him find that level of happiness. As he reached the front of the room he coughed to get the teams attention. Slowly silence filled the room as they all quieted down. Seeing that he had everyones attention he addressed the group

"Right Bishop you want to take us through what we got here before we head out"


	3. Chapter 3 The new path

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

Jubilee let out another deep sigh as she walked around the office. Once the melancholy set in, it took most of the day for it to pass, unless there was something to distract her, and today had been a slow day.

When she had left the X-Men, she had had a number of choices to make, not least of which was how she would make a living now that she was not in the spandex brigade. She had bummed about a bit and had settled on the police, but they had said she was too young to join. She had been pretty gutted at the rejection but as she was leaving the recruitment agency she had been approached by someone she had not seen in a very long time - Nick Fury.

The Col had approached her with a job offer that was too good to be true. They would train her in intelligence gathering if she came to work for shield, True it had taken some time to get to that role but that is what he had offered eventually, She did not need to have a hands on role, but they figured her experience would bring something to the team, He had then left her with a card and headed off telling her to call when she had made up her mind. He had not even gotten to the car when the phone had rang, and she had given him an affirmative answer.

To say that her training had been intense had been an understatement. She had the standard basic training where she had done well and then for 1 year she had lived, eaten, breathed and slept intelligence gathering techniques. She had always had an aptitude for learning (which she had kept hidden) but she was now stretched mentally, physically and emotionally in ways she had not imagined. The sheer nature of the induction had been what saved her, she supposed, from the constant depression. She was given no time to feel sorry for herself, and she had an inclination that Nick may have set it up that way deliberately. She had graduated top of the class and had started in one of the smaller units gathering intel on various terrorist groups, both human and mutant.

For the first few months it was all new and exciting and Jubilee had worked had to ensure that she was the best of the best. The effort involved in this meant that she had often collapsed into bed exhausted at night with no time to think. As she got more experienced there was no need for her to work so hard She had learnt the techniques and risen in the ranks, promoted to Major within 2 years and now ran one of the largest units. There was even talk of her being being promoted to Lieutenant Colonel.

While her work meant that she was busy, mentally she was not pushed. Her analytical mind worked quickly and she did not have to try and see the various schemes in the way that others did. She had mentioned this to Fury once who had laughed and said he figured that it was the fact she had spent her childhood dealing with plans and schemes in the way that others did not. He had tried to push her into becoming a field operative, but for Jubilee it was just too close to what might had been, so she declined and continued to work on intel gathering.

It was still early so not a lot was happening. Her operatives were all hard at work scanning all of the incoming data while she supposedly completed paperwork. So far she had managed to move around the piles of paper without doing anything while staring out onto the operational floor. Her office allowed her to look over all the members of the team, but thanks to Shield technology at the press of a button, or a wave of a hand the glass walls could darken for privacy or allow for intel data to be displayed turning them into a giant vid screen. She liked to leave the glass clear as often as possible, and truth be known she did not spend as much time in the office as she could. She just liked to be in at ground level with the guys doing the work - it gave her a buzz.

She was distracted from her brooding by a chirping noise coming from the com on the desk. Straightening in her chair she hit the button. "'Sup?" she asked. They had tried for a number of months to adjust her language during basic training but could not break her of some of her habits.

"Major, there seems to be an issue in Iowa. Some kind of low level attack. We have a lot of data coming in but it does not match to any group we know" The voice came through a little tinny

" Attack?" her mind sped back over what she had seen over the previous weeks, there had been no intel coming in about an attack in the mid west "

Yes Major, its low level stuff but does not seem to fit into any of the known patterns. Shall I call the Colonel?"

"No Davis, we have nothing to tell the Colonel yet. Get all of the data on screen, I'm on my way down" Standing up she pulled down her Shield issue sweater and headed down, thankful to have her mind occupied, "Looks like today may just have gotten a little more interesting after all " she muttered as she headed to investigate.


	4. Strange Days

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

**A.N **Despite having this sitting on my HD I have done nothing so shame on me - but here is another chapter

The blackbird had landed in a field near Iowa about half a mile away from the latest area of trouble. With the current tensions within the vicinity Cyclops had decided that it would be wiser to keep clear of the heavily populated areas. Bishops analysis of the escalating violence had shown that things were most likely to escalate this way on the border rather than in town where the local authorities seemed to be getting a handle on the trouble slowly but surely.

Looking out into the peaceful fields it was hard to believe that there was so much unrest such a short distance away. Currently the team were waiting keeping out of site until they were sure that their presence would be required. It was not until they were en route that there had been reports of the local authorities stepping in to clam the situation, and from what they could gather from the reports coming through from the police, things were being dealt with in a fair manner with both the norms and mutants, so there was not much that they were needed for.

They had been so close to reaching their destination that they had decided they would land and ensure that they were not needed. Things looked to be heading for a peaceful resolution which was a pleasant change. More often than not peaceful resolution was not something that the X-Men encountered, and in many cases they were used to coming home battered and bruised.

Following M-day the number of times the team would be called away had increased to unbelievable proportions. The minority groups like the Friends of Humanity had risen up seeing their chance to further their plans of hatred against the mutant minority, saying that this was God's way of removing their blight from the world. This combined with the effects of the legacy virus had allowed the hate groups gain a further stronghold on those who felt threatened by that which they did not understand.

The X-Men had continued to to fight to save both human and mutant but no matter what they did the press and other groups would make them look like monsters.

"Bishop are we getting anything else fed through from Cerebro" he asked breaking the pensive silence that pervaded the plane,

"It seems a little odd but it looks like things are quieting down" came the stoic response

"Odd how?"

" Well based on the patterns Cerebro provided it looked like things were reaching critical mass but all of a sudden it has defused for no apparent reason. The information coming through from the national guard and the local police departments is that they do not understand what has happened - they cannot see an explanation as to why things changes"

"Perhaps," Emma interjected " you did not interpret the data correctly. Perhaps" she continued in a a snide tone " You were looking for a fight. I fail to see why we should jump simply to help out in every situation. it was clear to me that we would not be needed in this. The flatscans should learn to deal with their own issues!" .

" The data from Cerebro pointed to their being an issue Ms Frost and regardless of your feeling of, " Bishop paused looking for the right words " dislike for the humans there, we have to act on the information that is provided to us, Information that suggested there was about to be a major incident here"

"Yes well we can see where that information has gotten us this far" Emma but back

"Enough! it is bad enough we have to deal with the squabbles of others but I will not tolerate this team falling apart as well. Emma I love you, but you are wrong. We have to act on the data at hand, and this time the data said we were needed, can we not just be grateful that this time it was a false alarm" Scott's voice showed a hint of the weariness that he carried inside him, his harsh words causing the everyone to become even more silent were such a thing possible. " Bishop, what does the data say now" he asked walking over to the console.

" According to the calculations and behavior patterns we are seeing it looks like our presence will not be required, though personally I believe we should wait and see that things continue the way they are heading"

"Very well we will wait for half an hour and it the patterns Cerebro sees continue to remain constant we will head back to the mansion" .

" I see no point in waiting dear" Emma interjected " If the machine says there is no issue then we should just leave, Our very presence here could cause further uprising".

"Emma its 30 minutes, We can wait that long, but Bishop if there is no change we leave, understood" The man from the future simply nodded. No matter what the data said he was sure that something was not right about this whole thing.


	5. Inklings

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

Jubilee stood at the desk of lieutenant Davis her eyes scanning across the data currently streaming onto a large vid screen. "Are we sure that there was no data on this coming through during the week" she asked as she tried to process everything that was coming up.

They had not seen any of this in the intel data that has passed through her team, she was sure of it, which meant one of two things, They had a new hate group to deal with, or, there was something strange going on here, and her gut screamed it was the latter.

"No Major. Michaels is looking through all of the data but thus far there has been nothing on the attack"

"Hmm well this looks too organized to be spur of the moment. Play back that last set of data showing normalized behavior patterns again" She gestured to the screen on the far right

"All of it major?"

"No just the last 3 hours should be fine, something just is not right with it" As the data spooled back on the screen and began to re-play Jubilee walked forward.

There was something there - she just could not put her finger on it. Focusing on the patterns she looked for what she knew she should see. "Groups tend to behave in the same way" she muttered to her self " We just need to understand what these guys were doing" A sensation like an itch in the back of her brain was there - telling her she was close. She just needed to work out which direction she needed to go. Lost in her thoughts Jubilee was not aware of the doors opening, or of the formidable man who strode into her room.

" Lee!" the voice boomed "Care to tell me what the fuck is happening out there!" The bellow broke her from her thoughts as she turned round to see who had dared distract her and noticed that all of her team stood to attention

"Damn it Colonel what the hell do you think we are trying to do here - organize a sunday pick - nick" she barked back.

" Major you had best address that tone when you talk to me. Now give me an update - why the hell did we not know about this before it happened" Trying her best to look contrite Jubilee squared her shoulders and turned back to the data screen

" We are not clear as to why this happened, no intel has been received, but as you can see from the data screens we are currently processing the information we have and" she stopped as the itching in her mind ceased

" and what Major?" Fury impatiently asked

" God damn! was the only response

" God damn what Major!" Ignoring the question she turned back to Davis

"Lieutenant - I want you to run the last 3 hours of data through the Branston pattern and see what we get, Michaels - I want you to scan all new data received in the past 6 hours - look for strange com patters or communiqués that we are no expecting from any of our agents. Take who ever you need to get the task done" Both men stood and looked unsure of how to proceed. It took Jubilee a few minutes to catch on to the issue " Colonel - if you could excuse the men" she asked with an eyebrow raised,

" You have your orders now get to it" Fury barked as the men moved into action "And you major can explain just what the hell is going on here"

"Well" Jubilee paused "I think we may just have had the wool pulled over our eyes" Turning and walking back to her office she through over her shoulder " Care to join me Colonel"

XMXMXMXMX

"Scott" Emma's voice cut into his thoughts as he continued to stand and look out over the countryside. He chose not to respond - he knew that it would irk her but a small part of him was just reveling in the peace and quiet. Life for the X-Men had been hard following M day. So many member of their family had been lost to them and it hurt. He had not had the luxury of taking time to grieve the others had needed a leader and he was the man. It was what Charles had groomed him for. Despite this there were days where he felt that the weight of it all would be too much for him.

Regardless of whether or not he had liked them all, his fellow mutants who had lived at the mansion had been family, Hell even those that only stopped in occasionally held hat status in his mind and loosing yet more members had left him feeling cast adrift. They had all hoped that there would be some calm after it all but these uprisings were all to common and now that they had a break he just wanted to take a moment or himself to be at peace.

He felt a presence at his shoulder and saw a manicured hand out the corner of his eye. He turned expecting to see Emma but it was chocolate brown skin and blue eyes that filled his vision.

"It is a most beautiful site to behold is it not?" Storm asked " The goddess is indeed great and bountiful with her treasures" Scott smiled quietly

"Were you not a goddess in a previous incarnation Storm"

A warm chuckle escaped Storms lips to accompany the wry smile at the comments that were designed to poke fun at her

"Some might say, but such bounties are beyond my reckoning, but we should try and take the time to make the most of them while we can. We get little enough peace these days as it is these days"

Scott glanced sideways at his old fried "You know 'Ro Emma is supposed to be the mind reader here - not you"

"Friend it is not a matter of mind reading, in this we are of one mind."

They both stood and started for another minute before 'Ro decided to break the silence once more

"I feel that our colleagues grow restless and wish to be away." Taking a deep breath in Scott squared his shoulders and took one last look at the rolling fields. "Bishop - get us back to the mansion, we can look at the data there" Turning back towards to cockpit he pondered over why they had come here. Something just did not seem right


	6. How we got here

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

Sitting in Jubilees office Nick Fury was astounded at what he was seeing on screen. Quite how the woman worked out what the data was saying he did not know, but she managed to do it so successfully, that had he not known better, he would say she was a mutant.

"Looking at the patterns here you can see that historically we can plan and track the uprisings that we have been seeing in terms of the groups that plan them. The FOH are predictable and over the past couple of years we have been able to draw out patterns for most of the other major groups, humans first, the right of succession, just the usual suspects" Jubilee looked up to check that the colonel was following her. Furys response was a single nod.

"Now looking at the data we have over the past few weeks, we are not seeing any of the standard patterns, but the MO that we see looks like it is related to any one of the smaller factions that tend to cause us issues. Now what is odd is that in checking the communications channels there is nothing, not a whisper of trouble, I have the men confirming this"

"Hold up there soldier, this is not what you saw on the screen - what did you see "

"Indeed - this is a mix of fact and supposition, but one truth remains, when you look at this data and watch the flows and interactions, its all noise and no substance. Col - this is a distraction and I think that there may be some kind of flanking maneuver going. What is not clear is who this is meant to distract., It is not us, or there would have been more chatter to get us in from the start,"

"I don't see it Lee. How do you know it is organized?" Fury probed

"Ok watch this" Jubilee pulled up the data she had been looking at on the floor.

"If we take the patterns we see and go through them - here is hour zero - we see groups assembling - but it is organized, no open chatter and nothing that makes you not think it is a regular day, except for here and here " Gesturing to the screen she highlighted two packed groups of people

" Normally these groups would be conflicting factions, but as we track them we see that this is not the case they start to move in a synchronous dance - they are working together. Here are hours 1 - 3 - see?"

Fury nodded as it slowly became clear. "See here how they then pull in commuters and make it confusing. Note also that there seems to be press there - like they knew it was coming. Nick - this is nothing but a stage show - it is there to distract us - the real issue is what the hell are we being distracted from?"

Col Nick Fury strode through the corridors of Shield looking over the file and printouts he had taken with him from intelligence. There was truth in what Jubilee had shown him and once the initial patterns were pointed out it was clear that the whole thing had been a ruse. It was just beyond infuriating that there was no clear reason as to what anyone would want to carry out these actions

When he had been pulled into the offices of his superiors and quizzed about why they had not know about the issues in Iowa before they had happened- he had been spitting feathers and ready to take out the first person he had come across that should have known. He knew it would be a rare slip up but if one could happen then so could many and he knew that he had to make his position clear to the men and women he commanded. When he had burst onto the floor and found Jubilation Lee working with her team while ignoring him he had felt his blood pressure raise just a little further. The woman had always had that effect on him, from the first day he met her, and not in a good way.

Fury had known Jubilation from her time with the X-Men. He had always found it odd, the way that the happy go lucky child had attached herself to the meanest, most cantankerous miserable SOB on the team in Logan. He had even brought it up with Summers and the Professor on one occasion. Charles had just listened and then smiled and said that he had faith in her choices. Fury, while unconvinced had let things go he had issues of his own to deal with - Charles Xavier could deal with his own problems.

For a long time the girl had not crossed Fury's mind, but then came the series of events that had brought her back to his attention. There was the fiasco with the Friends on Humanity when she and that other boy from the school had been left for dead on the mansion lawn. Charles had contacted him and let him know about it - hoping that Shield could deal with some of those involved. As an organization Shield could not get involved, and Fury made this clear, but when Charles had sent him the images from the security camera his stomach had turned. While he had seen, and perpetrated his own horrors there was something in those images that had sickened him and motivated him sufficiently to dress down and head out to have a little 1 on 1 time with the suspects.

Fury gave a tight smile as he remembered the bawling out he had taken from the commander in chief when he had turned up for his meeting the next day with a black eye , bruised hands and no explanation as to how they had come about. But be had to admit was worth it for the fun he had the night before.

It had been a short while later that Jubilee had come once more to the attention of Shield and more specifically Nick Fury. When the rigmarole of Operation Zero Tolerance had come about Shield had been made aware that there was something going on in the desert. Intel at the time had said that they believed it to be mutant activity, a poor assumption as it turned out, but one that remained on file.

Shield had not been aware that Bastion had set up a fortress there, or that Jubilation Lee had been held captive but they had been investigating what was happening while watching the X-Men. Shield had been in the process of mounting a rescue mission when the X-Men had escaped, and had been there to see the last of the escapees - young Miss Lee again. On realizing that she had been a captive Fury had sent men out to escort her back to the ready station so that he could quiz her on what had happened , but she had evaded all attempts to find her, and next thing they knew she was back with the X-Men. In later meetings, when he mentioned this she had smiled and laughed telling him that his trained elephants would need to get up early in the morning to catch her out, even in the middle of the desert.

These two situations had been enough to intrigue the colonel and she had become his pet project. He did not try and make contact but instead spent time building up a portfolio on the the still young school girl. He had investigated her past and found out all he could about her friends and family. He had tracked her through the foster homes she had been too, the life she escaped, her time with the X-Men, He knew her grades and what her teachers said about her. His men had managed to get him secured information from the academy (Emma Frost's security not being all she believed it was) on her progress in terms of her powers and where they thought they would end up.

He had more information than anyone else he knew on her, enough that he had gone to meet with her following the shut down of the school and her return to Greymalkin drive, and had offered her a job with Shield. She had of course turned him down. She was gonna be with her Wolvie, a part of the X-Men, she had announced. When Fury asked her why she just popped gum and smiled telling him thats what the best did.

He had smiled back at her and had told her to get in touch with him if she changed her mind. She had looked at him then, straight in the eye, the smile gone. She had told him then that she would not change her mind, she said they needed her, Wolvie needed her and this would be where she would stay.

As he had gotten up from the table in the cafe where they had met he had turned back and looked at her and for the first time he had seen the serious face that she chose to hide from most people. They had shared a moment then, in a way they were alike. Each hid behind a facade that the rest of the world expected to see. Her experiences had tempered her, like good steel. She had come through the flames and was stronger than anyone had given her credit for. In the blink of an eye the moment was gone and, along with a pair of sunglasses the bubbly facade was back in place, along with a large pink bubble. He had walked away then thinking that they were done. Obviously she had a strong sense of loyalty and while it was Shields loss it was the X-Mens gain. He had kept his eye on her to see what had happened. She had remained a small player in the X-Mens team nothing had really made her stand out.

Then the world had been turned on its head with Mday. Jubilee had been one of the hundreds of mutants whose lives had been irrevocably changed, she had lost the part of her that had defined who she was and what she did. Fury had watched as she left he X-Men and struggled to find her way and then he had approached her again. He had offered her the opportunity to join as a member of one of field level operatives and she had turned him down even when he had explained why she was well suited. This time there were no fake smiles, no masks just s serious set of cool blue eyes. She had explained to him that she could not be a field operative, that it was too close to what she had done, too harsh a reminder of what she had lost.

He had accepted and left her with a simple nod, and his card on the table, telling her to contact him if she changed her mind. He had planned to leave her to it, he had gone after her on two occasions and had been turned down - now he was done. He had reported back to the powers that be and left it there. Well right up until one night where he had been working late, as was his habit and the idea had come to him. That was what had lead to him being stood outside a bar at 2am waiting for her. He had tired to bully his way past the bouncers to no avail, He was going to walk away when she appeared asking what the issue was and raised an eyebrow when she saw the cause of the fracas.

She had ushered him into a back room asking others to cover the bar in her absence. It was then that he had presented his idea, join as a field operative and then they would look at a transfer. She had resisted but the package he presented had won her over and she had accepted, with some reticence, but never the less it was an acceptance.

As he had expected she had excelled at basic training, she graduated through all of the classes with flying colours. Her time with the X-Men had left her fit and ready to deal with most issues and training simulations. When this was combined with her surprising natural talent in gymnastics she very quickly went to the top of the class. None of this had surprised him. He had really caught him out was her natural ability to deal with strategy. She had become a natural leader of each training team she was in, she seemed to be able to see the patterns and stratagem of the opposition in most cases. Fury presented his findings to his superiors and had recommended that she be transferred to intelligence on graduation. His superiors agreed and when he had put it to her, she had accepted first time, and with a small smile. something which has been sorely lacking to this point.

She had quickly moved through the ranks, buoyed by the research she had carried out into the patterns of group behavior. She had applied patterns to data coming in and had revolutionized the art of understanding and predicting behavior, She had become one of the youngest majors in the history of Shield running her own unit gaining Fury much kudos. He had attempted to discuss her departure from the X-Men on a number of occasions but she would not be drawn on what had happened. That, she had told him, with solemn eyes and a guarded expression, was personal business.

Sitting at his desk - feat up he could not help but marvel at what they had drawn from the information while he was there. Hitting a button on the desk he responded to the confirmation beep "Margot, get me the Lieutenant General - tell him I have an update on the Iowa situation"


	7. About face

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

They were most of the way back to the mansion when the notification came through. Bishop moved over looking at the data being relayed to the away team from Cerebro courtesy of Hank.

"Bishop?" Scott questions from the pilots chair

"Hmmm... One moment" Bishop looked through the information that was streaming across the screen in front of him. "It's a distress signal right enough, it is coming from a small land mass well out to sea off the east coast of Mexico. It has come through on one of the com channels we reserve for team maneuvers, though that could be coincidence more than anything"

"I don't recall us having allies out that far" Scott pondered out loud "Henry can you check the records, do we have any teams unaccounted for that could be out that way?"

" I am a number of paces ahead of you my friend" Came the response over the com line. "We have yet to hear from Kitty and her team that went out to look at the disappearances we had seen in the last couple of weeks across the country. I have endeavored to disseminate our concerns to our missing erstwhile colleagues but have yet to receive any further transmissions."

Scott rubbed a weary hand over his face. "Bishop, is the correct alert code present?". Bishop responded in his typical brief style with a single nod, not taking his eyes off the screen. " Very well, Hank send the coordinates through to us, Storm" he turned to his current co pilot "plot the course when the details come through". Turning to walk back to the rest of the team he tried to look relaxed as he announced "Guys, there's been a change of plan"


	8. Anyone got a clue

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

Fury walked out of the board room having briefed his superiors on the data that they had to hand - he had been able to show them that the whole thing had been a ruse and they had been appeased to some degree. Of course now they wanted to understand why someone had gone to the effort of setting up a ruse and they had been less than happy when Nick could not provide them with that information. They had suggested that they pull in Major Lee but when he had pointed out that that she could only talk them through the same data he had they had backed down.

Walking into his office Margot - his PA - looked up and handed him the messages that had been building up in his time away from his com screen. His grimace was ignored as he stomped through to sit in his chair slamming the door behind him. Paying no attention at all to the messages he sat down at his desk and pondered the situation. He had to agree with his superiors , what they were seeing made no sense at all. There was nothing to be gained from setting up the kind of situation other than media coverage. While a lot of the hate groups on both sides tried to use media coverage to their gain it was not as if they were secretive about it. By now he would of expected to see at least one of the groups on the TV shouting about how the situation was or was (not depending on who was giving the message) justified, but there had been nothing. There could be any number of reasons but non of them made him feel very comfortable.

As Fury pondered he paced around the room, looking to vent some of his frustration. He was an experienced military man and he knew that something was wrong he just did not know what, Without thinking about what he was doing he moved over to one of he cabinets in the room to the small humidor which sat on top and removed one of his cigars. He often found chewing on the end of a stogie helped him think through an issue (regardless of whether or not he lit it). He continued pacing working through the issue. If he were in the position of one of these groups why would he set up the show that had been enacted for all today?.

The more he thought on it the less sure he was as to what they could have gained. Throwing open the door he barked out " Get me Major Lee" before slamming the door closed again. He supposed that he should be more polite to Margot but she was used to his ways and he was too damned old to change any time soon.

Jubilee stalked across through the hellicarrier towards Colonel Fury;'s office. She hated to be away from the floor when she was on duty. She had tried to hold off coming here but Fury's PA had made it clear that the Colonel required her presence ASAP. "Wonder what the hell has crawled up his ass to make him so damned impatient" She muttered to herself. She could guess that it would have something to do with the powers that be and his earlier visit to the intelligence section.

Reaching Fury's office she stopped to speak with Margot. She had always thought that Fury treated his PA badly and liked to take a moment to chew the fat with her. Sitting on the edge of the desk she started to catch up on the latest gossip with the woman who always appeared to know what was happening and when. Just as the news started to get interesting a voice bellowed from the other side of the door

" Major get your but in here now, do you think I called you here for a girly chat!"

Smiling apologetically she stood and strode over to the door and threw it open without knocking. If Fury could be rude then so could she! Throwing the door closed behind her he stomped over to the desk and saluted the Colonel as dictated but the military guidelines.

"Colonel you requested my presence" she stated in a matter of fact tone.

Fury nodded and provided a cursory salute in return. " What the hell was the point of that little show today Major?" he bit out around the butt of the cigar

Jubilee could not help but be momentarily confused by the question, Thinking through her day she could not work out what Fury was referring to. She knew that he had met with his superiors but she honestly could not think what she could have done that would require a reaming out by her superior. "Today Sir?" she questioned

"Yes today" Fury barked back at her "What the hell were those people trying to achieve with the god damed stage show. You have seen the data, hell you identified the pattern, you must have some idea"

Sitting back in the chair and crossing her legs at the ankle she smiled as Fury's issue became clear. " Well Sir I have not had much time to look it over" Fury looked up, the scowl deepening on his face "but I have a couple of ideas based on the data and what we have seen happening as the situation wrapped up today"

Fury settled back into his seat waiting to see what she would come up with. Her ability to ascertain the theory behind what she saw from the behavior patterns was uncanny. He had learnt to trust her intuitive responses and had in fact based troupe deployments on what she had told him. Nodding for her to carry on he settled back as scenario was laid out for him and a cold feeling welled up in side him as it all became to damn clear.


	9. Trouble?

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

"Storm what's our ETA on those co-ordinates?" Scott asked walking towards the cockpit of the black bird.

The X-Woman did not look up from the control, instead looking at the telemetary instruments. "I would think no more than 5 minutes Scott"

Nodding he walked back into the main body of the plan. "Bishop, let Hank know we are 5 minutes out and see if he has any further information for us"

Emma's voice sounded in his head " "Really Scott must we chase every god forsaken fake lead that comes up - we do not have the time or the man power for this""

Scott rubbed his temple a scowl hidden behind his combat visor. He knew that Emma was right, they did not have the manpower to chase very lead and they were already stretched thin following the losses of Mday. Even with this being the case he could not take the risk that one of their own was in danger, further losses would only serve to cripple them further.

""I know Emma" he thought back at his wife "but we need to be sure that we are not loosing any more members of the team. It could be Kitty's team and if so we need to check this out""

Emma sighed as Scott looked up at the rest of the team, most of whom had taken the opportunity to catch up on their sleep.

"Ok Team, we will have wheels down in 5 minutes so up and at 'em" He watched as the team started to stir. When he could see that they were all paying attention he gave them the briefing

"Hank and Cerebro have alerted us to a distress call coming through on one of the secured channels. It has the bona-fide alert code. Bishop, do we have any more information from the message"

Bishop looked up from the console " No further information but Kitty's team still have not called in and they are now 5 days overdue"

At the mention of Kitty's name Logan looked up suddenly very focused. Scott had not been looking forward to letting Logan know about Kitty being missing, he knew that the Canadian wild man would not take it well.

"Not giving anyone a chance to interrupt Scott continued " We don't know that this message has come from them but we have to assume that something has gone wrong. When we lad Logan, you and Remy need to scout ahead see if you can find any trace of who may have set this message off. Rouge and Cannon ball - take to the sky - see what you can see scout the whole area but stay in com link. The remainder of the team will be split into 3 parties, I will lead one, Storm the second and Emma the third, look for clues and don't split up - we need to keep in touch at all times. Bobby and Bishop, your with Storm, Besty and Paige, your with me, Warren your with Emma. No one is to make a move until they have updated all other members of the team. Everyone clear?" Scott took note of all the nods and watched as Logan walked over to Bishop to look over the data before the landed.

Walking back over to Storm he looked out at the island mass they were fast approaching and wondered just what the hell they would find where they landed.


	10. Looking for answers

**Disclaimer** - All characters that you recognize belong to Marvel and not me. No money is being made off of this piece fiction - it is just for fun

Fury mulled over the conversation he had with Jubilation. They had no proof as to why the scenario as staged but they both shared the same thought - it had been a plan to bring someone in - to get them away from somewhere. Pacing around the office he stopped to pour a drink from a secret stash of whisky that he kept in his bottom desk draw. Both he and Jubilation had spent 3 hours discussing the in's and out's as to who could have set it up and why and still they had nothing. She had gone off to look though data from the past month to see if there was anything there. She had also briefed her team as to what they should look for. He knew that the answer had to be there - he was just not convinced that they would find it in time.

Jubilee rubbed at her now tired eyes, she had been scouring through a single months worth of data looking for patters and clues as to what we going on. It was a monstrous task but she could not remove any of her staff from the tasks they were currently working on. To stop looking at the data they received could prove devastating, so she was left to look through the historic data herself. No matter how hard she looked she could not see a pattern that could be extrapolated out to the current situation. Sitting on her desk indian style she stated and the glass wall which was now acting as a large vid screen watching group movements looking for something, anything that would just give her a clue as to what was going on "Come on man, what he hell was the purpose of today?" she muttered watching the patterns morph before her eyes.

A sharp knock made her jump as it startled her from her musings over the data playing on the screen "Yeds" she barked at the door not taking her eyes from the screen. She was aware of someone entering the room but did not turn to look at them - she had to be focused on what she was looking at

"Major its 10pm - shift change time" came the voice from the door

Looking up she found Major Phillips standing in her doorway "Computer freeze, Leutenant Phillips - are you on the night shift?"

"Affirmative Major Lee, I am here to take over, looking for something in particular?" Phillips asked as he entered into the room

"Hmm, yeah I am looking at something for the Colonel, but the data just does not want to play today" she grimaced., "But I guess it is time to call it quits for tonight. Right Lieutenant the floor is yours start the handover with the floor staff. I will lock up my office be out of here in 10 minutes" With a nod she turned back to the data screen effectively dismissing the Lieutenant.

She knew that keeping herself apart from other members of the team meant that a lot of people thought she was stuck up and arrogant. She knew what they said about her when they thought that she could not hear. They thought that she believed herself better than her compatriots, all because she had progressed through the ranks within Shield. She was an attractive woman and had been approached by a few of her colleagues when she had joined shield, guys who wanted to take her out for a drink, but she had always refused. Eventually people had stopped asking as word got round that she never said yes.

She knew that there were those who called her cold and detached, while others insinuated that she was actually shacked up with the Colonel (that one always made her laugh) Ironically nothing could be further from the truth. It was true that she kept herself apart from the others but not because she thought she was better, she was all to aware of her faults and weaknesses, her background had taught her that. She kept herself apart as she did not feel like she should allow herself to develop attachments, when that happened people only got hurt. She had trusted the X-Men once and then when the game changed they had thrown her out - her family was no more and she had to pick up the pieces, and that was not something she was willing to do again.

Leaving her office she looked down onto the operation floor, she saw that the second watch had taken their positions, her team were stood ready for dismissal. She had to smile quietly at that. While she was not 'close' with any members of her team she had earned their respect, in fact she had trained most of them and when they had seen that she could do her job they had built up a good dynamic. There was a lot of competition around who would work in her team, but competition was good it kept the team on their toes and made sure that they were on their A game.

"Ladies and Gentlemen - thank you for your contribution today. It has been another long hard shift but we made it through. Lieutenant Phillips the floor is yours" As she walked down the stairs to the floor, the new team and their commander stood and saluted. She gave a brisk salute back and stopped to address the lieutenant "If there is anything odd, anything at all just call me" She looked him straight in the eye trying to impress on him the importance of her request "I am serious Lieutenant, anything odd, anything that you don't get, that doesn't it the pattern then call"

"Yes Sir"

Happy that she had managed to get her point across, she walked off of the floor to head home with the puzzle still running round her head.

********

_Authors note: So now I have things where I want them so hopefully there will be some action in the next chapter and I can get things going. Thanks also for the reviews - they were cool___


	11. More about how we got here

Jubliee continued to remain deep in thought throughout her journey home. Fury was right and had known that something was going on and it irritated the hell out of her that she could not work out what it was. The pattern should be there, all human behavior fell into patterns, but she just could not put her finger on it. She was startled from her reverie by the sharp blast of a car horn as it shot past her

"Smart move Lee" she chastised herself, "Getting yourself killed sure 'aint gonna help anyone" focusing on her journey she pushed aside the puzzle of what the hell was going on with the so called riots and chose to keep a much closer eye on the traffic she was attempting to navigate her way through.

As soon as she had come into enough money her first large purchase had been her bike. She had spent weeks traveling back and forwards to Shield headquarters on the company mandated transport run. There had been the option for her to live on base, and in fact the powers that be actually encouraged a lot of the new recruits to say there, They liked to be able to keep an eye on them, but that had been too close to her past, so as soon as the opportunity arose she had headed off to get a place of her own.

The down side to this independence was had been the countless hours she had spent commuting and sitting in traffic jams. As fond as she was of her blades there was no way that she was gonna skate to and from work, so a bike had been the obvious answer. She had always had a thing about them even as a Californian Mall Rat, There was something primal about them. It was as though you rode a living thing and one if you did not concentrate for one moment then there was the risk that it would turn on you . When others asked her why she liked the bike the only thing she could compare it to was riding a wild stallion (although to her knowledge most horses could not top 100mph but hey metaphors can only go so far)

Slipping between cars she remembered her first day on the bike - she had managed to nearly kill herself. She had been showing off (and trying to disassociate her memories of other bike rides chipped in a small voice that she was determined to ignore) pushing herself and the bike well past her skill level. There was a sharp turn, she took it too quickly, a rookie mistake, and had ended up eating gravel. In the end it had only been her sharp reflexes that had saved her from more serious injuries than a dislocated wrist, a broken ankle and numerous cuts and bruises. Her reflexes however could not save her from the reaming out fury gave her. It contained a lot of words like foolish, dangerous, careless, something about the cost of training and understanding her limits. She had been given some fairly awesome pain meds and had not really been paying any attention. A broad smile split her face as she recalled the look that the Colonel had given her when she had asked him how her bike was on the back of his lecture. His face had turned an impressive shade of red that had reminded her at the time of Penance and he had splutterd shocked at her gaul before he marched out of the room. Two days later on her release from the med wing she had seen her bike outside in the main lot - shuffling her way over she had been astounded at the mess she had made of it. The paint work and lights looked to be trashed, the handlebars were a write off and go knows what else had been ruined. She had spent all that money and now all she was left with was a pile of junk mettle.

Taking great delight in wallowing in her misery, she had been unaware of the fact that she was being observed until a voice from behind had spoke "Its not as bad as it looks, a lot of the damage i superficial. By the time you are up and running again she will be good to go" Turning around as quickly as she could she had been surprised to see Nick Fury stood leaning against a wall - the the proverbial stogie clenched between his teeth.

"You think so?" had been her only response. There was no way that her bike would be up and running in that time. Shield had patched her up and with their technology healing as a much shorter process. In the time it would take her to recover she could not possibly raise the funds needed to repair all of the damage,

He had nodded "Sure - Gus thinks that he will have the paint match by next week and the body work will be complete by then" His words took a moment to sink in. Gus was the one of the engineers who looked after a lot of the transport for the company, Why would he be looking at her bike.

Before she could voice her confusion he had lifted a hand and pushed himself off the wall. Walking away he had called back over his shoulder " Don't open your mouth or say a word to anyone or that heap of junk will be at a scrap yard before you can sat jack rabbit Soldier" He had not seen her nod or the surprised smile on her face as he walked away, and for once in her life she had stayed quiet.

6 weeks later, bruises and cuts gone her bike had once again appeared in the lot, as good as new. Stood next to it was the Colonel.

"Your cleared for duty?"

"Yes Sir"

"you will be rota'd in from tomorrow" and with that he had thrown the keys to her as he walked back towards the main building, Fury had always been a man of few words, although this time he paused and turned back

"Your leathers were wrecked - don't ride it without new ones , these damned crotch rockets go too fast for you to risk it"

She had nodded an affirmative response, afraid to speak in case her emotions got the better of her.

Back in the present day she had pulled off the main road heading don side streets home loomed in front of her. Pushing a small button mounted on the handlebars she approached what looked like another storage unit. Slowly the door lifted to reveal a small but functional garage. Pulling the bike over and removing her helmet she wiped sweat from her forehead before putting the kick stand down. She had no idea why but Fury had always let her get away with more than she should and for that she was eternally grateful. She knew that a part of it was down to the fact that he felt some pity but she worked on pushing past that, Walking back through the still open door she pushed the concealed button to close it again - watching as the lights turned off automatically. She keyed in her security code on the small pad to the left of the door and waited to hear the beep signifying that lock down was complete before walking off to her flat.

Just down from her lock up was another inconspicuous set of stairs which lead up to her apartment. It was the lack of anything out of the ordinary that had lead her to choose this particular location. She hated the idea of being watched and spied on and some how she had figured that the less obvious the place, the less likely that was to happen. After she had left the mansion - privacy had been everything to her. Somewhere to lick her wounds and recover. It had also helped that they place had been fairly cheep which meant that she could afford to buy it.

At the top of the stairs was a heavy duty security door - without a key hole. She had spoken to some of the guys at Shield and they had provided her with some state of the art security - with the understanding that they would be rewarded with free drink. Placing both feet on the pressure sensitive security pad positioned slightly off centre to the left she tapped her left boot twice in rapid succession - to anyone watching it would look like she was tapping her foot in irritation. A click sounded as a small crevice appeared at the other side of the door. Sliding her hand into the slot she stepped forward. She could feel the slightly unpleasant buzzing sensation as a scan was taken of her her palm along with a DNA sample to confirm her identity. A second scan was then taken of her retina by the remote scanner above her door - better safe than sorry had become her motto. Both of the scans were quickly followed by the soft sound of the dead-blots dropping and the door quietly swinging open. Striding into her sanctuary she pushed the door closed - it was surprisingly light, lords only knew what it was made of, they had refused to tell her - and listened to the bolts fall back into place.

"Primary and secondary authentication protocols passed, welcome home Jubilation" The slightly mechanical voice called out in greeting . Jubilee winced, she really should turn that off. As she walked up the lit corridor the voice activated again " Tertiary authentication required"

Not slowing she spoke one word "Sparkler"

"Tertiary authentication confirmed, access granted"

Walking into her apartment proper (after using a key to access the second door) Jubilee threw her jacket onto the couch and walked into the kitchen to grab a beer. Taking a long draw from the bottle she pondered all of the security she had installed. She knew it seemed excessive but as a valued employee of Shield they had been happy to provide it all for her - they wanted her kept safe. Chucking herself on to the couch in the much the same way she had her jacket she sighed. She was kidding herself that she was leading an ordinary life.

To this day she remembered being called in to see Emma in her office. She had sat on a seat smiling at her old headmistress - maintaining the illusion that she was not nervous. Emma had not smiled back - which was not unusual in and of its self, but her demeanor was off. She had been direct, as was her way, and gotten straight to the point. It was not possible for Jubilee to stay here, this was a mutant academy and she was not a mutant and as such posed a clear and present danger to the other students who remained. To this end she was to leave immediately. There was a small fund set up by the Professor, she could keep that to use as she wanted, but she had to be out of the mansion in 2 days.

Tears fell from her blue eyes even now as she remembered her pain that day. Emma had turned away and picked up a paper on her desk effectively dismissing Jubilee from her presence. Jubilee on the other had had not been able to move. Her family, the only thing she had left in her world was throwing her out.

"Wolvie..." was a all she could get out through her constricted throat. She was so sure that her protector and friend would not allow this to happen. He would come to her side as he had always done.

"Miss Lee. I have asked you to leave. The X-Men have had this discussion as a group and a unanimous decision has been made - there will be no changing it"

That had twisted the knife. A group decision she was out, Logan had sided with the others against her. Anger flared, she stood and walked over to the desk. Emma ignored her. Leaning down she spoke quietly, giving no sign of the fury that raged within her

"Do I really scare you all that much, is that it, when you look at me do you feel fear that this could be you? This is it you know, the end of the mutant age and in the end you were brought down to your knees by one of your own. I hope you all rot in hell with you fear to keep you company"

She had left that day consigning most of her gear into storage until he found a place to stay. Completely loss she had hiked her way into town with questions running round her head. How would she live, sure she had the account Emma had mentioned and some savings but that was it. The only thing she had been good at was being a superhero and now that was gone. It was then that Nick Fury had sprung to mind. It had taken her a few months, and a few really sucky jobs but she had approached him and made the move to Shield. At first she had lived on base, along side all of the other recruits. She had learnt the hard way that free food and lodging was a luxury, and the training had been hard going leaving her with no time to do anything other than sleep. It had been later when everything stabilized she had bought her own place, determined that she would never be dependent on another sole for the rest of her days

Wiping tears from her cheeks she sat still lost in thought and old memories - it was the beep of the phone alarm that roused her back to the here and now. Pulling herself to her feet she checked the time realizing that she was running out of time to get ready. Moving with more purpose than she felt she wondered into the bathroom and looked at her face in the mirror. Her eyes were overly bright showing still unshed tears. A somewhat wry smile bloomed on her face. "You have survived Lee, you are stronger than they ever imagined you could be. It is time to put the past behind you. The only one you need to worry about now is you"


	12. Plans are set

Having briefed the team the Blackbird was now on its final approach. Bishop had managed to identify a landing spot that was not too far from where they thought the distress beacon would be situated. They had agreed that there was no need to make it too obvious what they were up to as they looked to investigate just what was going on. Logan was now pacing around the back of the plane like a caged animal.

"Not so far from the truth my dear" came Emma's mental voice. Scott schooled his face to show no reaction to her words. It came as second nature when you were dealing with someone like Emma. He knew that there was no love lost between his wife and the hairy Canadian and most of the time he would be in agreement with what ever opinion Emma was voicing but he understood that Logan was worried about one thing and one thing only - Kitty.

Pacing between his seat and Bishop, Logan unconsciously clenched and unclenched his fists as he fought the urge to pop his claws in time with the motion. He could not believe that Kitty had been missing and he had not noticed. There were too few of them now, and the loss of even one should be felt by all of the community. There was no way that they could afford to loose any more, Magnetos daughter had seen to that. Were it any other member of their family he could have accepted that he had not noticed, but this was Kitty. He had thought of her as his daughter for as long as he could remember, he had always believed that he would know when she was in trouble but he had not. A lot of the anger he felt just now was actually directed at himself and his lack of awareness. As he reached Bishops station the large stoic man turned to look at him.

"We will land in two minutes Logan - I should belt in were I you"

"Yeah well you 'aint me bub" Logan growled back " You think that I'm gonna be phased by a little bit of a rough landing. You forgetting who you talkin' to?"

Bishop had turned back to his screen seeming to ignore the man who stood behind him but chose to answer " Hardly, but it will delay the search should we have to wait for you to heal"

Logan growled his frustration. He knew that Bishop was right and hell the man was showing a lot more patience than he would have done had their positions been switched, but damn it all Kitty could be down there - injured, or worse and these fools wanted to take their time and plan a strategic landing.

Without a thought his metal claws shot from their sheaths with their distinctive SNICK " Damn it, why are we wasting time. Before he could voice his opinion Emma's cool tones rang out "Oh for gods sake Logan - get a grip. Do you know how much it costs to repair the inside of this thing every time you loose your temper"

Logan's head snapped towards the front of the jet showing his predator like senses as he focused on the woman who sat there dressed immaculately. Stalking towards her as if he was stalking an item of prey the rumble of his growl increased as he drew closer. 'Cost of the plane, she wanted to talk to him about the cost of the plane, lets see what the cost will be to get blood out of her damned clothes' he thought. Scott rolled his eyes as Emma poked at the Wolverine. It was as bad as having children sometimes. Sending a mental message to his wife to stop he moved to try and calm down his volatile team mate.

Damn it Emma for once just let it go he sent mentally while out loud he spoke to Logan "Enough Logan, take you seat and everyone buckle in. This is likely to be a rough landing"

Scott kept eye contact with Logan ensuring that the man took his seat. As he sat down Scott recapped the plan " When we land, Logan and Bishop will will scout ahead, the signal is coming from a clearing about 5 minutes north of where we will land. Storm, Rouge air con. The rest of you divide into teams of three and sweep the area. No one, but no one should progress into the clearing until I give the all clear. Any questions?"

"Yeah - any signs o' life down there?" asked Remy

"Negative" this came from Bishop

"What happens if we turn anyone up while searching?"

"Unlikely but hold them for questioning, I want to know what is going on down there" Scott answered

When no more questions came Scott turned to Storm. "Take us down 'Ro, lets see what we have down there"


	13. Hold onto the dream

The music pounded through the busy club like a heart beat. The low lighting cast shadows of the clubers onto the walls, making it look as if there was a a giant writhing beast in the middle of the room. The club was situated in an a building that had been a factory.

The majority of the ground floor of the club was given over to the large dance floor which was currently packed with dancers. There were a number of tables and booths around the dance floor allowing tired dancers an opportunity to sit and rest. Further back there were more booths allowing for more seating. The far end of the room was more brightly list to allow the bar staff to see what they were doing. Another crowd stood around the bar, calling out their drinks to the staff who ran around ensuring everyone was served,

The upper floor of the club provided more seating and some private areas for those guests who were willing to pay for the privilege. A couple of smaller bars were there to supply the VIP guests away from the crowd. Tonight these areas were mostly quiet, not unusual for a week a night, although a few of the booths were occupied by those hardened party goers for whom cost was no object. At the far end of the second level stood a set of stairs guarded by a single large bouncer. The stairs lead to a single door that was currently shut. When ever a party goer approached the bouncer they were politely turned away.

Jubilee allowed the music of the club to surround her as she looked out of the large glass window. It had been deliberately set to allow who ever was in the office to watch over the whole of the club. She smiled as she swayed with the beat. She loved it when the club was busy. It was as if it had a life of its own, a living, breathing entity.

In her mind the club was her greatest triumph. She had saved and put aside money for as long as she could remember and had bought the old run down factory unit. The city had been offering grants for people to take on these run down areas, so she had taken what she could, mortgaged herself up to the hilt and now was the proud owner of Fire Dreamer, one of the most successful clubs in the city. She had worked hard and promoted the club in every spare minute she had. Shield had been less than happy with her choice to invest her money in a business she would be running, but they had come round eventually. She was pretty sure that she had Nick Fury to thank for that as well. The only condition had been that she could not publish the fact that she owned and ran it. That was not an issue, she had never planned to publicize it, but she would take what she could. The club was now open seven days a week and was busy most of the time. As the weekends they had people standing waiting to get in throughout the night. She had managed to create a haven. The reviews had wondered how the owner came up with the ideas they did, the truth of the matter was that she just built a club she would like and others had liked it too.

Walking from her window she moved to her desk, which faced the window and sat to work though more of the paperwork that had come in for her attention. She flicked a switch to turn off the sound from down stairs and focused on the tasks at hand. It was currently 10.30pm, she planned to be down behind the bar at 11.30 to work with the customers which meant she had to finish this off.

By 11.45 she had managed to clear the pile and had headed down to the bar to check in with the staff. Sales had been good there had been no trouble, so she settled in for a stint giving one of the guys a break, Working behind the bar, no one knew she was the owner, She found it cathartic just serving away, not thinking about anything. The faces all blended in with each other and she was nothing other than another member of the bar staff. Turning to take another order she was greated by the smiling face of stranger.

"What can I get you sir?" she asked

" Gimmie a beer doll"

Giving a polite smile she turned away to get the drink, feeling the customers eyes on her, She ignored the urge to turn round and stare back, it did not help to be antagonistic. Bringing back the beer she held out her hand to take the cash but in stead the man grabbed her hand

"Hey how about a kiss to go with my drink?" he slurred

"How about you let go of my hand and go drink your drink, so I don't have to throw you out?" She returned

Obviously her words did not sink in as he did not let go

"Come on doll don't play hard to get, you know you wanna gimmie a little peck"

Putting on her stern voice and loosing the smile Jubilee dropped the facade "Sir I'm gonna ask you once more, let go of my hand" she said in a louder voice

"You know, playing hard to get ain't so nice baby doll. I know the owner he's gonna be pissed when he hears how you done treated me" the man threatened. She resisted the urge to grin at him. She got the I know the owner speech so many times it made her laugh. Rather than responding she nodded towards on of the security staff who was stood watching to see if she needed any help. He walked over and placed on arm on the mans shoulder

"Sir I need to ask you to unhand the young lady and step away from the bar"

Hearing the bouncers words he loosened his grip on her hand allowing her to slip back from him Jubilee watched as the man picked up his beer and took a long drag

"Son you wanna take your hand off me before I remove it for you" the drunk threatened

"I don't think you want to threaten me sir" the bouncer said as the man turned round ready to do battle.

Jubilee had to grin as he stumbled back in shock. The bouncer behind him had left one hand on his shoulder while his other three arms crossed over his chest.

"What the hell!" he exclaimed "Get you hands off me you damned freak!"

"Sir you are aware that this is a multi cultural establishment, you signed an agreement to this on entry to the establishment" the bouncer clarified looking less than please. On getting no response the bouncer gestured to the door "Sr"

Watching the man get escorted to the door Jubilee shook her head, she would never understand intolerance, why was it people could not live and let live. Shaking her head she turned to the next customer smile back in place. While he may not understand intolerance she was clear on one thing - she would not tolerate it here in her bar. It had been clear from day one, all would be welcome at here, no matter their colour or genetic makeup. Even if it was only in this one small location, the professors dream would live.


End file.
